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In today’s editions, our Dallas County government writer, Kevin Krause, reports on the Parkland Memorial patient who appeared at Commissioner’s Court yesterday and surprised the audience by showing it the medical tube hospital staff left in his arm.

You may recall our previously stories on Parkland discharging patients unsafely in the last two years, a health-care failure regulators have corroborated. The hospital is under federally mandated monitoring because of its safety crisis — the largest in the U.S. to face such a penalty — as a condition to keeping hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding.

Channel 8 also was at commissioner’s court and ran this 2-minute segment last night. It includes footage from the meeting and reaction from County Judge Clay Jenkins, who has become a leader in pushing the taxpayer-funded hospital to reform.

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First, let’s check in with veteran Commissioner John Wiley Price. He appointed Dr. Lauren McDonald (right) to Parkland’s governing board in 1999 and has kept her there ever since, despite six-year term limits. As soon as Price heard my voice on the phone yesterday, the line went dead. I immediately called back, got voice mail, left a message — and heard nothing further.

Next we turn to Price’s fellow Democrats, County Judge Clay Jenkins and Dr. Elba Garcia. In January, as court newcomers, they expressed “deep concerns” about patient harm and related issues at Parkland. Now their only reaction to the McDonald story is this statement they emailed me last night: “We remain committed to continually improving the delivery of care at Parkland Hospital. To that end, we are thankful for all of the hours Dr. McDonald and all of the members of the Parkland Board have given to this county and to this goal.”

Mike Cantrell, a Republican, said McDonald has done a good job as chair of the hospital board. He said he needed to “see what the temperature is” on the Commissioners Court before deciding what to do next.

Maurine Dickey, a Republican who preceded McDonald as Parkland chairwoman, also praised her. Dickey called The News‘ findings “very troubling” but expressed doubt that the Commissioners Court would remove McDonald. “Commissioner Price,” she explained, “has all the power.”